Have you ever thought about wholesaling digital stuff like eBooks, software, or online courses? It’s easier than you might think, especially with the help of tools like Download Monitor.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know in plain and simple terms.
Wholesaling digital products is more profitable than selling your digital items one by one. However, first, you’ll require an elegant-looking, fast-loading, and easy-to-navigate website to get started with your digital products business.
If you don’t know how to create such a website, no worries. We are going to show you how to create a digital products website in just 6 steps and start wholesaling.
So, keep reading!
Why Should You Choose and Sell Wholesale Digital Products
Selling digital products is a fantastic way to build a business, but have you considered the extra power of going wholesale?
Sure, you could sell your creations one by one, but there are some compelling reasons to start a wholesale digital products business.
Instead of selling a single download to one customer at a time, you can sell bulk licenses of your product to businesses or other online sellers. This translates to higher profits per sale and the potential for explosive growth in your revenue.
A single sale to a wholesaler can reach a much wider audience than selling directly to individual customers. Plus, wholesale buyers often handle marketing and promotion themselves, freeing you up to focus on creating even more amazing digital products.
So, going wholesale with digital products allows you to scale your business much faster and reach a wider audience without the extra effort of individual customer management.
It’s a win-win for both you and your wholesale partners!
Download Monitor
Grow your audience, track download performance, and convert your traffic into email subscribers with an easy-to-use digital downloads solution for WordPress.
Top 5 Popular Digital Wholesale Downloads for 2024 and Beyond
As you know the digital downloads industry is expanding every day. But what kind of digital goodies are flying off the shelves in 2024 and beyond?
Here are our top five picks:
| Stock Photos and Graphics | Growth: The stock photos market is expected to reach $12.2 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2023 to 2032. Reasons to Choose: Compared to other digital products, creating stock photos and graphics requires minimal investment (camera, editing software). Perfect for: Photographers, content creators, and graphic designers. |
| eLearning Courses and Templates | Growth: The eLearning courses market size is expected to hit around USD 848.1 Billion by 2030, with a growth rate (CAGR) of 17.53% from 2022 to 2030. Reasons to Choose: You can share your knowledge and experience on any topic with high learning potential. Also, once created, your courses can be sold repeatedly with minimal ongoing effort. Perfect for: Teachers, trainers, web developers, web designers, digital marketers, and anyone who has a skill can monetize it by making videos out of it and selling them online. |
| Printable Planners | Growth: This market size is expected to touch around USD 1472 Million by 2030, with a growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1%. Reasons to Choose: Printable planners offer a low-investment, high-profit business model. With minimal design skills and software, you can start this business. Perfect for: It’s ideal for designers and entrepreneurs seeking a low-risk, creative digital product with a rapidly growing market. |
| Website Themes and Plugins | Growth: The market size of the themes and plugins is expected to reach more than 5 Billion by 2024. Reasons to Choose: Selling website themes and plugins allows you to create digital products with minimal ongoing costs. Once developed, they can be sold repeatedly, generating passive income. Perfect for: Web developers, web designers, and entrepreneurs with coding knowledge. |
| Fonts and Design Elements | Growth: This market size is projected to touch 1332 Million by 2031, with 3.2% CAGR rate. Reasons to Choose: With design skills and software, you can create and sell fonts and design elements. Perfect for: If you have a strong eye for design and an understanding of typography, you can turn your skills into sellable fonts and graphic elements. |
These are the top 5 popular digital downloads for wholesaling in 2024 and beyond.
Now let us show you how you can sell these digital products from your own website.
How to Sell Wholesale Digital Products Using Download Monitor Plugin – 6 Easy Steps
As we said earlier, we would show you how to wholesale digital products in just 6 steps, here are those steps:
- Prepare Your WordPress Site
- Install the Download Monitor Plugin
- Configure the Download Monitor Plugin
- Add Required Pages for Your Website
- Set up Payment Gateway
- Upload and Display Your Wholesale Digital Products
Now let’s get into the details!
Step 01: Prepare Your WordPress Site
To kickstart your journey into selling wholesale digital products using WordPress, the first step is to prepare your site thoroughly.
Here’s how you can do that:
Register a Domain Name: Choose a memorable and relevant domain name for your business. You can consider using keywords related to your niche to improve search engine visibility. Register your domain name through a reputable domain registrar like GoDaddy or Namecheap.
Buy a Suitable Hosting Plan: Invest in a reliable hosting plan that meets the requirements of your business. Look for hosting providers that offer fast loading speeds, scalable resources, and excellent customer support. Popular options include Bluehost, SiteGround, and HostGator.
Install WordPress on the Control Panel: Most hosting providers offer a one-click installation option for WordPress through their control panel. So, log in to your control panel and look for the “Softaculous Apps Installer” or “WordPress Installer” icon. Click on the icon and you’ll be redirected to a new interface where you’ll find the option to install WordPress like the following image:
Install a Suitable Theme: Choose a WordPress theme that aligns with the aesthetics and functionality of your wholesale digital products store. Look for themes optimized for eCommerce and customizable to reflect your brand identity.
Optimize for Search Engines: Enhance your site’s visibility in search engine results by implementing basic SEO practices. Install an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO or Rank Math to optimize meta titles, descriptions, technical SEO, and other on-page SEO settings.
Optimize for Mobile Users: With the majority of internet users accessing websites via mobile devices, optimizing your site for mobile responsiveness is crucial. Ensure that your chosen WordPress theme is mobile-friendly and provides a seamless user experience across various screen sizes.
When you are done with all these basic configurations, jump into the next step.
Step 02: Install the Download Monitor Plugin
Download Monitor is one of the most popular and user-friendly WordPress plugins for creating a website to sell digital products.
With more than 100,000 active installations and 4.5 out of 5 ratings, we can certainly say that this plugin would be a perfect choice for you.
Installing the Download Monitor plugin is an easy task. Follow the below process to install this plugin on your WordPress-powered website:
Within your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to “Plugins” and then “Add New Plugin.”
Search for “Download Monitor” and select the official plugin from WordPress.org.
Click “Install Now” and wait for the installation to complete.
Once installed, click “Activate” to start using the plugin.
That’s it! That’s how you should install the Download Monitor plugin. Now let’s move on to the next step!
Step 03: Configure the Download Monitor Plugin
After installing the Download Monitor plugin on your site, you need to enable the Shop feature of the plugin to sell wholesale digital products.
In order to enable the Shop feature, go to your WordPress dashboard and then navigate to Downloads -> Settings -> General -> check the “Shop Enabled” box.
That’s it!
Now let’s move on to the next step!
Step 04: Add Required Pages for Your Website
In this step, you’ll require to create these pages:
- No Access Page
- Cart Page
- Checkout Page
Let’s check how you can do that!
a) Create a No Access Page
If you are using the latest version of the Download Monitor plugin, the No Access should already be there.
However, if the page isn’t there by default, simply, create a page.
To create a page, navigate to the dashboard -> Pages -> add a new page naming it No Access. Then insert the below-mentioned shortcode:
[dlm_no_access]To do that, insert the Shortcode block and then paste this code to get your job done. Then publish the page by clicking the “Publish” button.
Then go to Downloads -> Settings -> Advanced -> Pages Setup -> No Access Page – select the page you created above which is the No Access page.
Then hit the Save Changes button to save all the changes.
b) Create a Cart Page
Now you need to create a cart page. Creating a cart page is almost similar to creating the above-mentioned No Access page.
Go to your WordPress dashboard -> Pages and click on the Add New Pages option. Then name the page “Cart Page”. Now add the [dlm_cart] shortcode to the page.
Finally, click on the “Publish” button to publish the page.
After you’ve published this new page, go to Downloads -> Settings -> Shop. In the Pages tab, select your newly created page as your cart page. Click Save Changes and you’re done.
c) Create a Checkout Page
There is one more page you need to create, and that is the checkout page. Following the same procedure, create a new page and give this page a name, e.g., Checkout Page.
Then add this shortcode to the page: [dlm_checkout]. Then simply publish the page.
Once you have published the page, go to Downloads -> Settings -> Shop. In the Pages tab, select your newly created page as your checkout page.
Then click on the “Save Changes” button to complete the process.
Step 05: Set up Payment Gateway
To accept payments, you’ll require a payment gateway. By default, the Download Monitor core plugin comes with the PayPal payment gateway. It allows you to accept payments via PayPal around the world.
To use PayPal on your digital downloadable site, you’ll be required to do 3 things:
- Enable PayPal on your site
- Create a PayPal account
- Connect your PayPal account with your site
First, check how to enable PayPal on your site. Navigate to your WordPress dashboard -> Downloads -> Shop -> Payment Gateway, and then enable PayPal.
Finally, click on the “Save Changes” button to save this change.
Now if you don’t have a PayPal account already, create a PayPal account first from the PayPal official site. Then connect your PayPal account to your digital downloads site.
Check our step-by-step documentation to create and connect your PayPal account to your site.
Step 06: Upload and Display Your Wholesale Digital Products
When you are done with all the necessary configurations for your website, start uploading your wholesale digital products. Uploading wholesale digital products is another easy and straightforward task.
Follow the below instructions to upload and display your wholesale digital products:
To upload a product, go to your WordPress dashboard and click on “Shop”. Then hit the “Add New Product” to start the uploading process.
Now insert your product name and description. There is an option named “Insert Download”, click on that option to upload your digital product.
There you will find an option to upload your digital products from your local storage. Or, you can just drop your file here to upload it.
After uploading the product, scroll down a bit and there you’ll find options to set the product price and the download item. Also, don’t forget to upload the feature image to attract your customers.
Once you’re done with this, simply hit the “Publish” button to publish this product. Now this product will be shown on your product page.
You can also show this product on any of your pages or posts. All you need to do is copy the Shortcode and paste it on where you want to show it.
We have copied the Shortcode and we will show it on one of our blogs. So, go to blog editor and paste this code.
Now if you update the blog and check it from the frontend, you will see the download link there.
When your reader clicks on this link, it will take him to the Cart Page.
Here is the Cart Page
Now if you click on the Procceed to checkout button, it will take you to the Checkout page.
Here is the Checkout page preview:
That’s how you can upload and display your digital products to wholesale.
Download Monitor
Grow your audience, track download performance, and convert your traffic into email subscribers with an easy-to-use digital downloads solution for WordPress.
How to Sell Wholesale Digital Downloads- Ending Note
Congratulations! You’ve taken a giant step towards building a thriving wholesale digital product business.
By implementing the steps shown in this tutorial and leveraging the power of the Download Monitor plugin, you’re well on your way to scaling your digital products.
The key to success lies in creating high-quality products, providing excellent customer service, and staying ahead of the race with in-demand digital downloads. Don’t be afraid to experiment, refine your offerings, and build strong relationships with your wholesale partners.
That’s all from our end. Now it’s your turn! If you have any feedback related to this tutorial, feel free to share that with us using the comment box below. We are all ears.
Download Monitor
Grow your audience, track download performance, and convert your leads into paying customers with an easy-to-use digital downloads solution for WordPress
